etter; Rios is a neighbor down in Lower
California. Now, forget Ruiz Rios. Let's start something."

There were six Americans in the little party by the time they had
walked the brief distance to the border and across into Old Town.
Before they reached the swing doors of the Casa Grande the red ball of
the sun went down.

"Fat Ortega knows you're coming, Jim," Kendric was advised. "I guess
everybody in town knows by now."

And plainly everybody was interested. When the six men, going in two
by two, snapped back the swinging doors there were a score of men in
the place. Behind the long bar running along one side of the big room
two men were busy setting forth bottles and glasses. The air was hazy
with cigarette smoke. There was a business air, an air of readiness
and expectancy about the gaming tables though no one at this early hour
had suggested playing. Ortega himself, fat and greasy and pompous,
leaned against his bar and twisted a stogie between his puffy,
pendulous lips. He merely batted his eyes at Kendric, who noticed him
not at all.

A golden twenty dollar coin spun and winked upon the bar impelled by
Jim's big fingers and Kendric's voice called heartily:

"I'd be happy to have every man here drink with me."

The invitation was naturally accepted. The men ranged along the bar,
elbow to elbow; the bartenders served and, with a nod toward the man
who stood treat, poured their own red wine. Even Ortega, though he
made no attempt toward a civil response, drank. The more liquor poured
into a man's stomach here, the more money in Ortega's pocket and he was
avaricious. He'd drink in his own shop with his worst enemy provided
that enemy paid the score.

Kendric's friends were men who were always glad to drink and play a
game of cards, but tonight they were gladder for the chance to talk
with "Old Headlong." When he had bought the house a couple of rounds
of drinks, Kendric withdrew to a corner table with a dozen of his
old-time acquaintances and for upward of an hour they sat and found
much to talk of. He had his own experiences to recount and sketched
them swiftly, telling of a venture in a new silver mining country and a
certain profit made; of a "misunderstanding," as he mirthfully
explained it, now and then, with the children of the South; of horse
swapping and a taste of the pearl fisheries of La Paz; of no end of
adventures such as men of his class and nationality find every day in
troublous